The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-07-29

through the single rift in dull gray
cloud.
81 must come here every day and
sketch it = said Lucy; cor, at least try
TO; and. like Fra Angelica, Ishall work
upon my knees 1t Is tho most heaven
ly face have ever seen.
asked the old keeper, who had seat
cd himself on the step of the altar with
IN uninterested air. when the white
wash was removed from this figure,
and whether it was supposed there
were other figures still buried beneath.
He replied that the old Marchese had
discovered the angel and it was By his
order that the whitewash had been re-
moved. But God had afflicted him all
most on the very day Of the completion
of tho labor. forty years before; aud all
had since rema ned as he had left it
''But if there are other figures, un-
derneath as beautiful as this, = | began,
4 should think that the nephew
But here stopped, alarmed. The word
nephew seemed to have turned the
old man into living statue of hate.
He did not move, but his eyes grew so
coldly fierce that they gittered. Ours
ed, cursed be he ~ he cried, and his
voice rang through the chapel and cor
ridor, and, passing down the stairs,
seemed to echo through all the empty
house. Then he rose, waved us out re-
locked the door, and. without pause,
conducted us down to the outer door.
We were obliged to 60. But we came
again, and many times; and at length
succeeded in forming sort of friend
ship with the old man; we did this for
the sake of the angel, whose face Lucy
was ardently trying to win from heav-
en- down upon her earthly paper-so
far trying in vain. But no matter
how often we came, we were always
obliged TO 60 first through all the
great dusky rooms below before he
would take us to the chapel; this was
routine inevitable.
One day, while Lucy was at work, /
asked him if he could describe to me
the pictures on the empty wall below,
Of course not to him calling then
empty
Most certainly be replied; and
we went down together, Then began
a singular scene. From wall to wall,
from room to room. we went, while,
with no knowledge Of art and no en-
thusiasm, he yet described each detail
of every picture and its frame with a
clear exactness which felt to be min
utely accurate. He pointed out this
tint and that fold, this atmosphere and
that interior; he described the portraits
of stern old Accolti in armor, and an
other, a child, q dimpled baby, in a
satin gown, SO that / actually seemed
to see them. In truth / did see them
all with my mind's eye, and see them
now. Up the broad stairway we went,
and through the second story; and it
seemed as if company of soft-sliding
unseen ghosts were with us and whis-
peringiy following US. 1t was the most
weird two hours / ever spent
/ became quite curious about the
old man; wondered what he ate, and
whore he slept, and if be had any
friends who came to see him. The
vender of lamps could satisfy me upon
two of these points Go to marketp
--old Marco! Oh,no; he never left the
palazzo, night or day. His few and
small provisions, the same through
years, were brought and left at the
inner courtyard door. Ii, in the mean
time, old Marco did not descend. and
cats appeared, was he, Raffaello, ven
der of lamps, to be held at fault? Man
ifestly not; and none but hardened
souls would assert Is since the honesty
of all his (Raffaello's) family was most
clearly established in all that quarter.
Friendsp No, old Marco had no friends.
He had d son living beside the straw
market; but, what would you! when
there was such disposition as Mar
co.'s, none could abide il, not even a
always with the nobilities' per-
mission.
Once did see the old mans abode.
He had taken mo up little, narrow,
concealed stairway, because / had
asked if there were any rooms above;
there, under the great cornice which
cast shadow over half the street be-
low, there were some small chambers,
and in the smallest Of these, mere
cell, there was narrow pallet bed and
d chair. But from the narrow window
opened magnificent view. All Flor
enee lay beneath; the Duomo. Giotto's
lovely campanile. the hower-stem
tower Of the Palazzo Vecchio. and, all
around, the violet mountains, and the
beautiful valley Of the Arno going west
ward to the sea.
lis this your room. Marcop'' / said.
'sWhat a magnificent viewI'
Il am near sighted, replied the old
man carelessly; Il cannot see the
view"
One day he looked so feeble and III
that / was troubled. '.He will die
here some day. all alone, and no one
will know il, /" said to Lucy LET MS
try, on the way home, to find that son.
SO our driver took us through the
straw market. and. after some search,
wa found MI. man Ha xvac . fa1aknr.